Report on the Harping Tradition in Ireland Toner Quinn October
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Report on the Harping Tradition in Ireland Toner Quinn October 1 Harping community meeting in the Arts Council, 2013. Front row: Máire Ní Chathasaigh; Siobhán Armstrong; Sheila Larchet Cuthbert; Aibhlín McCrann; Áine Ní Dhubhghaill; Caitríona Yeats; Helen Lawlor. Second row: Caitríona Rowsome; Dr Sandra Joyce; Deirdre Granville; Michelle Mulcahy; Laoise Kelly; Janet Harbison; Aisling Ennis; Theresa O’Donnell; Joleen McLaughlin; Ann Jones Walsh; Mary Louise O’Donnell. Third row: Paul Flynn; Tim O’Carroll; Maura Uí Chróinín; Dr Colette Moloney; Deirdre Ní Bhuachalla Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin; Gay McKeon; Geraldine O’Doherty; Úna Ní Fhlannagáin; Claire O’Donnell. Fourth row: Cormac De Barra; Kavan Donohoe; Seosaimhín Ní Bheaglaoich; Kathleen Loughnane ; Nicholas Carolan; Mary Nolan and; Catríona Cannon. Back row: Kieran Cummins; Simon Chadwick; Fintan Vallely; Peter Browne; Toner Quinn; Paul Dooley; Jan Muyllaert. Photo by Maxwell Photography 2 VOICES OF IRISH HARPERS ‘I am proud and delighted by the depth of harp talent in Ireland. I hope that these talented harpists will always be nurtured and helped in the country that has a harp as its national emblem.’ ‘The interest in the Irish harp is ever increasing and growing worldwide!’ ‘It never ceases to amaze me the profound effect this beautiful instrument has on audiences all around the world.‘ ‘I think the harp is fast becoming a mainstream instrument, which is brilliant.’ ‘All Irish children should have an opportunity to hear and see [the harp]... it is part of our culture and heritage and we have a responsibility to try and keep this tradition alive.’ ‘I find that when I play for people they are… as interested in the stories pertaining to the harp as they are in the music itself.’ ‘There is a whole market that could be created and developed out of the harp to enhance tourism, cultural life, and generate income.’ ‘I have been learning the instrument for less than a year, and it’s been greatly to my benefit.’ ‘I have seen the enormous growth in interest in harp playing. Since I started teaching… the amount of students learning harp has doubled.’ ‘I think the Irish harp tradition is inspirational worldwide.’ 3 4 Executive Summary 7 Introduction 11 1. Background to the Research 14 2. A Brief History of the Harp in Ireland 20 3. The Contemporary Harp Scene in Ireland: 28 Results from the Survey of Harpers 4. Recommendations 81 Janet Harbison conducts Brian Boru Lion of Ireland – an orchestral suite for harps, pipes and voices, 2014. Photo by John Garrett 5 6 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Over several centuries, from at least 1,000ad, a rich culture of performance, composition, improvisation, ensemble and craftsmanship developed around the harp in Ireland. Yet by the end of the 1700s, after successive waves of plantation, the social structure that supported it had been decimated and the tradition reduced to modest numbers of travelling solo harpers. A small sample of this historic tradition was captured in print by Edward Bunting at the Belfast Harpers’ Assembly of 1792. At this time the harp was also chosen by political nationalists as a symbol of the country’s cultural ingenuity. This symbolism survives to this day. Despite the national importance of the instrument, Irish harp practice continued to decline throughout the 19th century, right up until our time. Due to an outstanding effort by a small Irish harping community over the past sixty years, however, Irish harping has been revived and reimagined, and this thousand-year- old bedrock of Irish artistic life is now stronger than it has been for two hundred years. It is an exciting niche scene in contemporary Irish musical life, undergoing a new wave of performance, composition, collaboration and experimentation, and enriched by world-class Irish and international practitioners. Despite its growing popularity, however, the profile of Irish harping remains extremely low. Key among the reasons are: • a lack of public education about, and awareness of, the diversity and vibrancy of contemporary practice and the rich harping tradition; • a lack of significant annual showcase opportunities in Dublin (or Belfast) for contemporary Irish harp practice (equivalent, for example, to the Edinburgh International Harp Festival in Scotland); • the prohibitive cost of instruments and the lack of a national harp-rental scheme (such as also exists in Scotland); • the small number of Irish harp makers and the lack of research into, or documentation of, Irish harp-making; • an under-resourced and dispersed support infrastructure, with no umbrella body, central organisation or physical headquarters for Irish harp practice; • a low number of applications from harpers for the available Arts Council award schemes, including commissions of new work; • no central database of available tuition; • the lack of availability of harp tradition at a number of traditional music festivals; 7 Paul Dooley, Úna Ní Fhlannagáin, Caitríona Rowsome. Máire Ní Chathasaigh and Deirdre Granville. Meeting in the Arts Council, 2013. Photo by Maxwell Photography 8 • the unsuitability of some Arts Council schemes to the harp sector; • the great deal of research and publishing that still remains to be carried out on the Irish harping tradition. This report makes fourteen recommendations that could address this situation, including, • support for an Irish Harp Forum that encompassed all harp organisations; • increased support for the key organisations Cairde na Cruite, the Historical Harp Society of Ireland and the Irish Harp Centre; • support for research into the development of an Irish Harp Centre; • ensuring that Arts Council schemes are flexible enough to accommodate and support the full range of Irish harping activity; • support for professional training development for harpers; • a public awareness initiative to encourage more harpers to apply for the Arts Council’s range of schemes, bursaries and commission awards; • support for the introduction of a national harp-rental scheme; • capitalising on the occasion of the 2016 Commemoration through the establishment of an annual Irish harp festival in Dublin; • encouraging more traditional music festivals to provide harp tuition; • the creation of a database of available tuition and events where potential students can try the Irish harp (such as Na Píobairí Uilleann undertakes with the uilleann pipes); • supporting Irish harp-makers by encouraging them to apply for relevant supports; • support for more research and publication on the Irish harping tradition. The Irish harp lies at the cusp of reclaiming a prominent place in Irish cultural life, bringing with it a depth of tradition and musical creativity that is unique. Its potential for inspiring and enriching the Irish arts across the entire contemporary spectrum is relatively untapped. After a thousand-year journey for the Irish harp, 2015 represents an opportunity for the Arts Council to put the contemporary supports for the instrument on a more secure footing, and to ensure this historic Irish tradition flourishes into the future. 9 Harper Laoise Kelly performing in Sokolo – Atlantic Rhythms with artists from Ireland and Quebec, 2015. Photo by Brian Farrell 10 INTRODUCTION At the beginning of July 2014, I returned from three days at An Chúirt Chruitireachta, the Irish harp summer school and concert series that has taken place for twenty-nine years in Termonfeckin, Co. Louth. That evening, I happened upon a discussion on RTÉ Television’s Primetime on the Irish Government’s 2014 budgetary plans. It wasn’t long before I began to notice the large image intermittently flashing up on the screen behind the discussion. It is an image that in Ireland we have become so used to that it is sometimes almost invisible to us, and yet there it was, at the heart of our national affairs, its presence a perennial reminder of the depth of Irish musical expression, and it is still reaching out to us 1,000 years on. The image of the harp will not just be found in television discussions of the national Budget, but on every letter written by an Irish Teachta Dála, in the logos of State depart- ments, on the President’s seal of office, on our coinage and car-tax discs, on the hats of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, on the British pound coin, in the masthead of an Irish national newspaper, in the architecture of the Custom House and the Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin, on glasses of stout in every public house in Ireland, and in countless other forms relating to Irishness, not only in Ireland but throughout the world. What does it mean to have a musical instrument as a national symbol? And what do we know about this instrument that we see every day, but do not hear often enough? What can it communicate to us about our music and history, and even about ourselves? Having a harp as a national symbol only matters if we give meaning to that symbolism – through engagement and action – and a musical instrument offers us a particular opportunity. The harp has the potential to be not just a symbol on paper, but a symbol of how we nurture and care for our musical traditions, our history and culture, our diversity, and the musical opportunities we provide to our citizens. It is because of the harp’s deep role in our society over a millennium that this opportunity is so meaningful. To many Irish people, the harp may have become something remote. It has not had the prominence of other aspects of our musical life, nor the caché. And yet, through an extraordinary effort among harpers, organisations and lovers of the instrument over the past sixty years, there has been a great revival in Irish harping. Irish harp music today is a journey that is awaiting us all. At this moment, the Irish harp scene has reached new levels of participation and interest, and the Arts Council has a rare opportunity to help it reach its full potential.